Miriam

I am always struck, when I go back and look, how much science and math came out of the Arab golden age that directly influenced the Renaissance…astronomy, alegebra, medicine etc. Yet very little of that is credited in our common understanding of our history…

I certainly enjoyed being reminded that a Map is but a mere artifact and reflection of our interpretation of reality, not reality itself….humbling.

Mike

It reminds me of the slant that has been put on the past 2000 years of history by the fact that it was the Roman Empire that created name designations for people and places across Eurasia. Unsurprisingly, the Vans, the Geats etc. have come down to us as ‘Barbarians’ while, surely, had these been literate people, they would have had much nicer things to say about themselves.

I don’t much like Google’s solution of offering no mapping information for Cyprus. Avoiding the problem won’t solve it.

The name ‘Cyprus’, by the way, has a fascinating history of its own, revolving around the ancient transatlantic copper trade that is ignore by party-line historians.

Ah, no one will every agree about these matters. Hard to know what to do and whether even democratic, open-source options are actually a viable route.

Thanks for that link. Interesting stuff!
Miriam

A great idea, one that would probably get more traction in some markets than in others… Part of the problem in the marketing is selling something before enough people are looking for it…but it sure would be a unique niche. I would love to hear Cathy’s opinion.

Hey I just added another link, be sure to go read the article. You will enjoy it.

Mike

Cathy’s ‘design your own’ strategy is lovely, smart!

You know what I’d love to see Cathy go after? A ‘local green’ floral strategy. So many florists’ offering are exotic, long-distance, etc. What about locally-grown, low-impact bouquets of organic flowers? I know people with multiple chemical sensitivities and the like can’t accept conventionally grown bouquets because of the chemicals, and the carbon aspects of long-distance shipping might be troubling to the new mass of green consumers.

I wonder what the results would be of a green category for a florist like Cathy? The bouquets might look simpler, more hand-done, as though you’d just picked them yourself from your own gorgeous garden. I can see folks liking this…liking the local aspect.

Miriam